Remembrance Day and Poppy Day commemorate war veterans who sacrificed all

The astonishing display of hand-made poppies that surrounds the Tower of London for Remembrance Day 2014 reminds the world of the 100 years that have passed since the start of World War I. Its 888,246 ceramic poppies commememorate the life of each Commonwealth soldier lost in that conflict. Artist Paul Cummins, who calls his work “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” will place the final poppy on November 11.

Over the last 100 years, the poppy has become the symbol of the ultimate sacrifice made by combatants in war. Its symbolism arose from the presence of the wild flowers lining roads and battlefields of France, further endorsed by the words in the poem “In Flanders Fields” by Canadian officer John McCrae.

Initially, silk poppies were sold to raise funds for French children traumatized by the war. The American-Franco Children’s League used poppy-sale proceeds for medical care, hospitals and recuperation homes. In 1921, The Denver Post’s own Polly Pry (Mrs. Leonel Ross O’Bryan) was the director of the regional headquarters, located in the Symes building. The Post’s story ran May 15, 1921:

1921 Denver Post story.

After the Great War, America and France designated May 28 as Poppy Day, when the hand-made flowers would be worn to remember those lost. Then on the traditional Memorial Day, May 30, they were to be placed on the graves of the dead.

American children also made poppies as early as the first World War. Orphanages were hives of activity where paper poppies were fashioned by the thousands. Below is an archive image showing girls in the Queen of Heaven Orphanage in Denver making paper flowers in 1921.

Orphans making poppies in Denver.

The American Legion Auxiliary was tapped by the American Legion to lead its Poppy Program in 1924. And in the early 1920s, the Veterans of Foreign Wars adopted the poppy and began its Buddy Poppy (a registered trademark) program to raise funds for wounded and disabled veterans. Below, two Denver ladies representing the American Legion Auxiliary, at left, and the VFW Auxiliary, right, prepare to sell poppies in 1963.

Poppies for sale

On this November 11, 2014, the words of Lt.Col. McCrae, written in 1915, will be read all over the world:

IN FLANDERS FIELDS
by John McCrae

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead.
Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved and now we lie,
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw,
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us, who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow,
In Flanders Fields.